By Arielle Kass
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Gary Krist, the notorious kidnapper who in the 1960s buried an Emory University student alive and was imprisoned again in 2007 for importing cocaine and illegal immigrants, has been freed.
Just before Thanksgiving, Krist, 65, left the Marianna Federal Correctional Institute in Florida. He’s now living in or around Mobile.
David Dittmann, supervising U.S. probation officer for the Southern District of Alabama, confirmed that Krist was living in the area. He will be supervised until Nov. 22, 2015. Dittmann did not provide any other information about Krist.
The former Auburn, Ga., resident achieved notoriety when in 1968, at the age of 23, he and a partner kidnapped the heiress Barbara Jane Mackle and kept her in an underground capsule between Duluth and Berkeley Lake. Mackle was underground for 83 hours and later wrote a book about her experience.
The fiberglass and plywood capsule in which Mackle was buried contained an air pump, hoses, a light, 30,000 calories of food, water laced with tranquilizers, blankets and three pages of instructions and reassurances that Mackle would live through the ordeal.
Krist directed rescuers to where Mackle was buried after her father paid a $500,000 ransom. He was captured off the coast of Florida, with the money.
Convicted and originally sentenced to life in prison, Krist first earned parole in 1979, despite a prison break attempt in 1973. He then shrimped in Alaska and went to medical school after being pardoned by the state of Georgia in 1988, when he was heralded as an example of rehabilitation.
He received a probationary license to practice medicine in Indiana in 2001. It was later revoked. By 2003, Krist had returned to Georgia and started a construction company with his stepson.
Then in 2006, Krist was in trouble with the law once more. He was again captured in a boat — when he docked in Point Clear, Ala. — by U.S. Customs agents who suspected him of drug trafficking. Krist had 14 kilograms of cocaine in a cooler loaded with quick-mix cement. Four illegal immigrants who had paid $6,000 apiece for passage were also on the sailboat.
Several people who were contacted in an attempt to reach Krist said they did not know how to reach him.
Krist was convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine and bringing in and harboring aliens. He was held at the Talladega Federal Correctional Institute in Alabama from April 23, 2007, until Jan. 7, 2008, when he was transferred to Florida. Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said he did not know why Krist would have been transferred.
He did say, though, that Krist achieved a “good conduct” release and received credit for 254 days in jail prior to his trial. Krist was originally sentenced to five years and five months in prison.
Henry “Jackie” Greeson, Krist’s stepson and a co-conspirator in the smugglings, was released from prison July 31, 2009, and returned to Auburn. He died last September at age 53.
Copyright 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution